When decorating your yard for the holiday season or looking for outdoor Christmas decor ideas, work with what you have. Look around your yard and the exterior of your home for existing elements that you can work into your Christmas decor displays.

If you have a good view of your back yard through the windows of your home, its lovely to carry your holiday season decorations into the back yard as well – creates a nice visual focal point for you and your holiday season guests to enjoy.

Here, a bird bath that is normally a feature of the summer landscape is transformed into a beautiful Christmas display in winter by first creating a bed of evergreen branches in the basin, and then nestling shiny colored glass Christmas ball ornaments into the nest of evergreen branches.  Note that ball ornaments of varying sizes are used to create an additional element of visual interest, but of course, if all you have is ball ornaments of only one size, that works too. A super-large ornament ball completes the look like a topper on a cake.

A really beautiful and festive Christmas display to decorate either your front or back yard.

From Martha Stewart,  here’s a fantabulous idea for your outdoor Christmas urns if you’re looking to do something new this year.

An outdoor urn is filled with evergreen branches (juniper, cedar, pine, fir, etc) – make sure the branches hang generously over the edge of the planter for that lush abundant look.   Then colored glass balls are stacked into a gentle cone shape in the center of the urn.

Again, to rock this look, its all about abundance, so you’re going to need a lot of glass ball ornaments!  When you fall short of the abundant look, your designs can end up looking a little anemic (aka “cheesy”!).

The trick here is that you’re going to need to glue the balls in place, otherwise there are simply not going to stay put. Don’t be daring and try it – a good gust of wind will send those babies flying, evening if you think you’ve managed to stack them securely.

Use a hot glue gun and glue as you go, one ball at a time. Don’t use a lot of glue though – a little dab will do. If you apply too much hot glue to delicate glass balls, they do run the risk of shattering or cracking.

There is nothing more welcome than the front entrance (exterior) of a house festively decked up for the Holiday season.  It may be cold outside, but it makes a home look warm and cozy as guests arrive, and gains the admiration of passersby.

Here a really abundant pine garland is swagged around the door for starters. And, by that way, that’s really key – when using a garland to adorn your front door, you don’t want it to look anemic, so use a really full, lush garland to get that abundant look.
Next, its all about the urns.  They may hold geraniums or petunias in the summer, but when the weather turns nippy, you want to get those babies filled with festive holiday decor. Again, make them FULL, and lush – remember, think ABUNDANT for the best visual effects. And to really make the display striking, you need height – that’s where the tall branches rising up from the center of the urns come into play, really capturing the essence of nature and spirit of the season at the same time.

Capture imagination with these out door Christmas ideas to create a candle-scape using old fashioned lanterns in your front yard.

Clustered on a table, a mix of lanterns greets holiday guests as they come up the walk to the front door. Be sure to include a range of different styles and sizes of lanterns for better visual interest. Elevate some lanterns if required to vary heights.

Sprinkle in natural items for embellishment like twigs, rocks, pine cones and small evergreen branches.

And of course, always abide by candle safety precautions and use care when using candles. Never leave a burning candle unattended.

We LOVE these ball displays in planters for Outside Christmas Decorations. From GrandinRoad, these prelit pinecone balls in planters make stunning outside Christmas Decorations.  A wire frame fits neatly in the planters, allowing the greenery to flow over the rim. The lighted pinecone ball is lit with with 50 bright-shining clear Christmas lights. The arrangement is presented in contemporary Column Planters Planters. Within the planters are inserts that serve to fill up the inside of the planter, thereby reducing the amount of greeney required.

A clever and creative idea for outside Christmas Decorations, clear lights are added to outdoor hanging baskets and Christmas ornaments (silver glitter stars in this case) are placed inside the baskets.  Glass Christmas balls would work equally well inside these baskets. Yet another great idea for outdoor Christmas Decorations.  

See more at ChristmasDecorated.com

Photo Credit: Lynne Knowlton

Lighted grapevine balls look amazing hanging from an outdoor tree at Christmas time. I remember the first time I saw them hanging from a snow-covered tree in someone’s front yard. I had no idea what they actually were, but I was in love.  As the photo above depicts, grapevine balls aren’t just for Christmas, they look magical when several are suspended from a tree any time of year.

You can make your own grapevine balls from scratch if you happen to be growing grapes in your yard and have a lot of grapevine hanging around – here are some instructions from Lynne Knowlton in Toronto. 

However, you can also buy pre-made grapevine balls in various sizes in craft supply stores. I’ve bought them in the crafts section of Wal-mart, as well as in their seasonal department at Christmas time. They are not expensive. 

The ones shown here are extra large. They also come in small and medium sizes. In the seasonal department of stores like Wal-Mart, you may even find small ones pre-lit for hanging in trees or on your patio. I have some hanging from my suncatcher (like a gazebo without the screens) in my backyard and I light up my patio with them all year round. In winter I love to simply see them out my window, twinkling in the darkness at night.

Try hanging grapevine balls from the lower branches of a large spruce tree to decorate your yard for Christmas this year. They look great hanging from the branches of deciduous trees outdoors during the Christmas season as well.

Photo: Sterling Place in Dearborn, Michigan

At Sterling Place in Dearborn, Michigan, all the neighbors on the street participate in making grapevine balls to hang from their trees. Pictured above is one of the first trees to be lit for the season, this one with colored lights on the grapevine balls (clear twinkle lights look fabulous as well). Can you imagine how awesome it looks when the entire street is lit up this way?  What a magical idea! Why not organize something similar for your street and turn your block into a real life winter wonderland?

Do you have photos of your lighted grapevine balls, or other things you’ve done to decorate for Christmas with grapevine balls? Email us a photo we can share (admin [at] frufrunetwork.com) or leave a comment to describe it.

Make a Christmas Urn for your front landing or yard – a beautiful outdoor Christmas decorating idea. Have you been admiring those Gorgeous Christmas urns in other people’s yards? They typically order them from a florist and prices usually start at about $100 per urn. The more elaborate, large, or dramatic the design, the higher the price climbs. I’ve known people to pay as much as $450 per urn if you can believe it.

This video will show you how to make a Christmas urn to place outside your front door (or make one for either side of the front door). Demonstrated by professional florists with easy step by step instructions.

An outdoor pillar is decorated with a festive Christmas arrangement. Do It Yourself: Fill a wide, shallow planter with a mix of your choice of flowers and greens. In this case the designers used pansies, flowering cabbage, cedar, fir, lavender, and rosemary trimmed to resemble a Christmas tree. Tuck in ornaments and oversize pinecones to add color and fill in gaps. Source: Southern Living.